Duck Run I, Duck Run II, Duck Run III

No, it's not a children's game. It's another collection of intriguing village names in Belize. The three villages of Duck Run form a line heading north from the Belize River, just west of Spanish Lookout, the Mennonite settlement on the way to Yalbac.
Chuck and I and Sheree and Aki had an appointment with Orlando Jimenez, the Rural Development Director for west Cayo District this morning. We sat in the increasingly stuffy office, discussing a variety of communities in Cayo. The power had gone out about a half hour earlier while we were eating breakfast at Pop's. While we were in Orlando's office, a heavyset energetic man in his late 30's interrupted with an important query. At least I think it must have been important based on his demeanor. I couldn't tell for sure, since he spoke no English. As he was leaving, Orlando said he was the council chair of the village of Duck Run III, and began describing the water situation in all three Duck Runs. We immediately called the chair, Victor Ismael Paris, back into the room for a deeper conversation. When Orlando described who we were and what we did, Victor became eager to get us to visit his village.
Aki was headed to Spanish Lookout anyway to price 36 inch plastic culvert pipe for a drainage project at Sacred Heart College in San Ignacio, so he suggested that I tag along and we could visit the Ducks.
We drove through Spanish Lookout, headed for the Belize River ferryboat. Before the final left turn, we veered right on a driveway that turned into a road. From there it was due north first thru Duck Run I, then Duck Run II, and finally Duck Run III. Each village is about 200 to 400 people, many migrants from Guatemala, and mostly people working on the Mennonite farms. Each village has water piped to each house. They buy it from the Mennonites, who use it only for irrigation. It's pumped straight out of the Belize River.
The water tested beautifully. Soft with low dissolved solids, good pH, no iron; excellent water for a treatment system. I also have little doubt it'll test positive for e. coli. We'll know tomorrow.
A teacher at the school told us emphatically that although the school bureaucracy was difficult to work with, the community was very cooperative and usually got what they wanted. This is the opposite of what we've heard in many places, where the village is a festering source of bickering and gossip, while the school is a bastion of functionality.
Victor, the council chair, led us to the community center where we checked the water again and looked around for electrical and water connections, and an appropriate place to build a water treatment room. He explained in animated Spanish how we could enclose part of the porch as a water treatment room, and where the distribution window could be placed. When I handed him a brochure with a diagram of a LWW system, he explained the components and flows to me in Spanish, looking for confirmation. Best I could tell, he got it right.
And then there was the final question: "¿cuánto tiempo?" How long? I was chagrined as I responded: "uno años, dos años" One or two years...
The need is now. It won't go away by itself. Kids are getting sick. What are we called to do?
- dan